Modify a slide master

The slide master defines the formatting and positioning for common elements - such as title placeholders, content placeholders, and footers - on the corresponding slide layouts. The changes that you make to the slide master are reflected on associated slide layouts. Slide layouts define the position and formatting for text and objects that appear on a slide.

Slide Master elements

Callout 1 Slide master

Callout 2 Slide layouts

Callout 3 Title element

Callout 4 Body element

Callout 5 Footers (including date and time, footer text, and slide number)

The slide layouts can inherit the formatting, position, and common elements from the slide master, or you can edit individual slide layouts so they differ from the slide master altogether. The advantage of the slide master is that you only have to make one change to replicate it in several slide layouts, rather than changing each layout or slide individually. The following illustration shows how a change to the slide master, such as applying an orange fill color to the title placeholder, is replicated in the related slide layouts.

Slide layouts inherit Slide Master formatting

Callout 1 Slide master with formatted title element

Callout 2 Slide layouts with formatting inherited from slide master

The slide master and its corresponding slide layouts are part of the theme that is applied to your presentation. If you have multiple themes applied to different slides in your presentation, then you will see a slide master for each one in slide master view.

Tip It's a good idea to make any modifications to your slide master and slide layouts before you begin adding slides to create your presentation. If you modify your slide master and its slide layouts after you build individual slides, some of the items on the slides may not conform to the slide master design.

Do any of the following:

Modify the title element

When you change the formatting of the title element on the slide master, the changes are replicated to both the vertical title placeholder and the standard, horizontal title placeholder in the corresponding slide layouts. If you change the size and position of the title element, the changes are only replicated to similar layouts, but not all layouts.

Note Only one "official" title placeholder is allowed on each slide because the text that you add to a title placeholder in normal view becomes the slide title in the outline.

On the View menu, point to Master, and then click Slide Master.
In the navigation pane, click the slide master. The slide master is the top slide in the navigation pane.

Do any of the following:

Do this

Change the size

Select the title element on the master slide, and then drag the resizing handleA square or round handle that appears at each corner and along the sides of the rectangle that surrounds a selected object. You drag a sizing handle to resize an object. to change the size of the title element.

Move the element to another position

Click on the border of the title element and then drag it to the position that you want.

Change the text formatting

Select the text in the title element, and then on the Home tab, under Font, change the formatting options that you want.

Tip To change to a different font type for elements on all your slides, change the theme font instead. Click the Slide Master tab, and then under under Themes, click Fonts, and then choose a different theme font.

When you complete the changes in slide master view, on the message bar click Close Master to return to normal view.

Tip Modifications to the slide master and the corresponding slide layouts are temporarily added to the theme that is applied to your presentation. If you apply a different theme, then the slide master changes are discarded. If you want to keep the changes for future use, on the Themes tab, under Themes, click Save Theme.

Modify the body element

You can change the formatting of the body element on the slide master, and the changes are replicated to the content placeholders on corresponding slide layouts. If you change the size and position of the body element on the slide master, the changes are replicated to content placeholders on similar layouts, but not all layouts.

On the View menu, point to Master, and then click Slide Master.
In the navigation pane, click the slide master. The slide master is the top slide in the navigation pane.

Do any of the following:

Do this

Change the size

Select the body element on the master slide, and then drag the resizing handleA square or round handle that appears at each corner and along the sides of the rectangle that surrounds a selected object. You drag a sizing handle to resize an object. to change the size of the body element.

Move the element to another position

Click on the border of the body element, and then drag it to the position that you want.

Change the text formatting

Select the text in the body element, and then on the Home tab, under Font, change the formatting options that you want.

Change paragraph formatting of bulleted or numbered lists

Tip You can change the bullet styles, or change a bulleted list to a numbered list.

In the body element, select the text of a list level, and then on the Home tab, under Paragraph, select the paragraph options that you want.

When you complete the changes in slide master view, on the message bar click Close Master to return to normal view.

Modify a slide master

Modify the title element

Modify the body element

Modify footer elements

Add elements back to the slide master

To	Do this
Change the size	Select the footer element on the master slide, and then drag the resizing handleA square or round handle that appears at each corner and along the sides of the rectangle that surrounds a selected object. You drag a sizing handle to resize an object. to change the size.
Move the element to another position	Click on the border of the footer element, and then drag it to the position that you want.
Change the text formatting	Select the text in the footer element, and then on the Home tab, under Font, change the formatting options that you want.

	Notes
	If the Master Elements button isn't available, then you may have selected a slide layout and not a slide master. If the items in the Master Elements menu aren't available, then they are already added to the slide master and you can't add more.